Yeah!

Day light savings changed and Spencer's email came in an hour earlier tonight.  Love his emails. This one had great details.  I loved every word of it.  He had one busy week.  I think he is looking forward to a calmer week this next one.  These 88,000 missionaries are amazing.  So glad I get to call one of them mine!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well here we are again! Mom, we actually moved to a new ward. This Sunday was our first sunday in church with the new ward. Espoo is about 45 minutes away from east Helsinki where we used to live. We got a new apartment and everything! Its bitter sweet though because I loved the east Helsinki ward soo much! 

This week started off with transfers! We had all the tickets purchased and the plan made. We got all the tickets out and called all the companionships in the mission. In the mean time on Monday we were moving and picking up trailers. We had to rent a trailer and borrow one from the Temple grounds keeper. Then on Tuesday we had 2 vans and 2 trailers and we went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. 

Note about trailers, my backing up skills have gotten a lot better on my mission. Who would have thought? 

13 new missionaries arrived and we took them to see the temple and go to the mission home. We had an amazing meal prepared for us by Sister Watson. I always tell her that its like a cruise ship when we eat there! 

Oh and all while we were doing this 110 missionaries were moving around Finland on trains! It was cool that we were doing two things at once! 

On Wednesday morning, we took the new missionaries to the Magistrate in downtown to get signed into the country. Then we brought them to the office to do orientation. After that we brought them back to the mission home for lunch and the big meeting. 

During this meeting is when president announces the trainers to their trainees. It's always fun for us because we get a sticky note with all the companionships on it the night before! Then we had to deliver 26 missionaries to Helsinki Central. We had more people than we planned for so we had to borrow the mission presidents car! It's a little nicer than our Toyota! After we got everybody to the train station we raced back to the mission home where all the departers were. We had dinner and then the truncky talk with them (president gives them marriage advice and stuff and we just sit there.) Its good stuff to know I guess and I'll be an expert one day because I've heard it soo much! All in all the transfer went perfectly. No one got lost or missed a train! 

Then early the next morning we took them all to the airport and sent them away! Then we went home to lick our wounds to prepare for MLC the next day. Friday we had MLC and it was a huge success! We got to do the temple with an english video! We had lots of new changes from President Watson that are really hard to explain but are super cool! Also in the midst of all this I got a new temple recommend. It's in Finnish! 

Then Saturday rolled around and we had a baptism! Haha!  We did almost everything possible that can be done as a missionary in one week! It was quite the week. I am really tired.

For all intents and purposes, we have a completely normal week this week. The week after however will be nuts! Elder Teixeira will be coming to do a mission tour. Also to top that week off we have stake conference and I am singing in a missionary choir! I'm scared for that! 

Our new ward is pretty cool. They had us come up and bare our testimonies. I told them about my family and how they do missionary work. I get way too much pleasure out of standing up in front of people and doing things. It was fun. 

Well kind of a normal week this week I guess? haha Thats all I got! Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

Hello

Love Sunday evenings.  Spencer had a great week and sounds like this next week will be busy and full of adventure. I just love all the wonderful experiences he is having.  He is learning such valuable things on his mission that he will use the rest of his life.  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

This week we did tons of work! We made some last minute preparations for the Mission tour this week. It required tons of time on the phone! My phone has a counter of how many minutes I was on the phone. Last month I alone was on the phone for 17 hours! My companion was probably the same! This month I have been on for 5 hours! I remember when I was younger, Dad would always ask me to call and set up home teaching or something like that. I would dread it! Now, I can have soo much going on after a few phone calls! I have really learned how to organize things on my mission. I love it! 

We taught a lot of lessons and it all ended up with 3 investigators in church!!! In our ward we had 10 Non-members! Thats because our friends family came! It was soo adorable and the ward loved them. We are in one of the biggest wards in the country so it is really cool how we all work together with them! 

For the mission tour we will have two meetings. One with the Helsinki and Tampere Zones in Helsinki. The other will be in Oulu. We will be flying with the group up to Oulu. The group being the Watsons and President Teixeira and his wife! That will be fun for sure. In the Helsinki Conference, I will be singing Israel Israel God is calling in Finnish with my companion and some others. I'm nervous because I don't see myself as a good singer but I'll be fine! 

We got to meet a bunch of the members this week. We had 4 Dinner appointments! I have never had that! The members here really are world class. There is a recently returned missionary who has got to be the coolest person alive who loves to go on teaches and go to lunch with us. Elder Richards has a doctors appointment today in the Helsinki city center so while we are there this returned missionary is taking us to lunch! He soo cool! 

What else? I am happy and alive and going strong! Thanks for getting me to this point in my life! 

Love,

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland

It Has Begun...

We love Sunday evenings! Sounds like Spencer is doing great and continues to love his mission. Looks like he is going to be very busy this transfer of 13 arriving and 13 leaving. Orchestrating all their activities has got to be quite the chore. Spencer thrives on this kind of stress though. We even got a few pictures this week. Yeah! Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Well you know how when you are on a roller coaster and you get slowly to the top of it right before you just plummet to the earth and spin and flip and go crazy. Yeah, so that happened this weekend...

I am staring at a giant tidal wave. Bring it on!!!!

This week we were in Espoo on exchanges and then we flew to Oulu to do the same.

While in Oulu, we taught an Investigator. While starting the lesson it beautifully articulate Finnish, I explained why before my mission I was I was addicted to TV and it would really help me if they turned the TV off while we taught. They said no. We asked one more time and she replied, "It doesnt bother anyone!" So, I told them that what we have is very important and will change their life. So, if this tv program is more important to you we have other places we could be. hehe They turned the tv off. I remember getting a little fired up but I realized that the restoration really is the most important thing to talk about with missionaries. Anything else could potentially be wasting time. The Gospel is so important. Much more important than the less important things! haha

Then all the change calls went out and everyone was excited. Saturday we posted up at the office and bought all the tickets for the transfer. You know how I love doing that! Ill send a picture of my General Patton esque planning!

Starting today we are going to rent a trailer from a local trailer rentaria and get the temple van and its trailer. This is in preperation for the 13 arrivers we have tomorrow and 13 departers we have the next day!!! It's gonna be huge!! This is what we live for though! We have been training. haha Im super excited but nervous about how it is all gonna go down. We also have to prepare a baptism in the middle of all of this!!!! Oh and we have MLC (missionary language conference) on Friday to top it all off!

These are the weeks where it is crucial to remember to take vitamin D!!!

Since we are leaving our ward, I had to say goodbye to everyone. It was soo sad! Marjaniemi has definitely been my favorite ward so far! I got a welcome back from the S family. They said when we come back we can stay with them! They are awesome!

Ah! I love my mission. It just doesn't get better than this. I also found 6 names on my family tree to take to the temple! There is tons to do with the family search website.

Anyway, have a great week everyone!
--
Elder Spencer Tippetts
Finland Helsinki Mission
Neitsytpolku 3 A 4
Fi-00140 Helsinki
Finland

P.S. We also found out that Spencer and his companion Elder Richards will be moving to Espoo. It is the city where the mission home and temple are. They need to be closer to where the president lives. The mission home moved back in July but they stayed living in Helsinki. They knew this move was coming and had been planning on it.

Here are a few pictures he sent:

This is Spencer with his companion Elder Richards.

Yeah!

Well here we are again! Mom, we actually moved to a new ward. This Sunday was our first sunday in church with the new ward. Espoo is about 45 minutes away from east Helsinki where we used to live. We got a new apartment and everything! Its bitter sweet though because I loved the east Helsinki ward soo much! 

This week started off with transfers! We had all the tickets purchased and the plan made. We got all the tickets out and called all the companionship in the mission. In the mean time on Monday we were moving and picking up trailers. We had to rent a trailer and borrow one from the Temple grounds keeper. Then on Tuesday we had 2 vans and 2 trailers and we went to the airport to pick up the new missionaries. 

Note about trailers, my backing up skills have gotten a lot better on my mission. Who would have thought? 

13 new missionaries arrived and we took them to see the temple and go to the mission home. We had an amazing meal prepared for us by Sister Watson. I always tell her that its like a cruise ship when we eat there! 

Oh and all while we were doing this 110 missionaries were moving around Finland on trains! It was cool that we were doing two things at once! 

On Wednesday morning, we took the new missionaries to the Magistrate in downtown to get signed into the country. Then we brought them to the office to do orientation. After that we brought them back to the mission home for lunch and the big meeting. 

During this meeting is when president an announces the trainers to their trainees. Its always fun for us because we get a sticky note with all the companionships on it the night before! Then we had to deliver 26 missionaries to Helsinki central. We had more people than we planned for so we had to borrow the mission presidents car! Its a little nicer than our Toyota! After we got everybody to the train station we raced back to the mission home where all the departers were. We had dinner and then the truncky talk with them (president gives them marriage advice and stuff and we just sit there.) Its good stuff to know I guess and Ill be an expert one day because Ive heard it soo much! All in all the transfer went perfectly. No one got lost or missed a train! 

Then early the next morning we took them all to the airport and sent them away! Then we went home to lick our wounds to prepare for MLC the next day. Friday we had MLC and it was a huge success! We got to do the temple with an english video! We had lots of new changes from President Watson that are really hard to explain but are super cool! Also in the midst of all this I got a new temple recommend. Its in Finnish! 

Then Saturday rolled around and we had a baptism! haha we did almost everything possible to be done as a missionary in one week! It was quite the week. I am really tired.

For all intents and purposes, we have a completely normal week this week. The week after however will be nuts! Elder Teixeira will be coming to do a mission tour. Also to top that week off we have stake conference and I am signing in a missionary choir! Im scared for that! 

Our new ward is pretty cool. They had us come and bare our testimonies. I told them about my family and how they do missionary work. I get way too much pleasure out of standing up in front of people and doing things. It was fun. 

Well, kind of a normal week this week I guess? haha Thats all I got! Love you all! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

FI-00140 Helsinki

Finland 

ps. I know the Metsätähti family, she looks like she is from their family. 

Hello

(Actual date to 9/28)

Love to get our emails from Spencer.  It was a really short one but we bask on every word. Sounds like he is back to missionary work full speed ahead.  It is nice that things have slowed down a bit so that could happen.  It sounds like his Finnish is doing great too.  He has never once complained about how hard it is.  I am in awe how well he knows it.  The Lord truly does watch over his missionaries and gives them the help they need to be successful.  The power of tongues is real.  Enjoy!

Hello everybody! Sounds like an adventurous week! 

I'm kinda tired right now because we stayed up late doing our monthly report for the area. It was very tedious. However, I wrote all the summaries which ends up being basically a 1000 word essay about the progress of the mission. It is good writing practice that you can't really get on a mission.  I really enjoyed making it really spicy! 

Pretty good week. It appears as if the craziness of bringing a new mission president and putting on one event after another is finally over! We had 7 full (AP days, so they weren't exactly full but still!) days in our area!  This week though, with all this time was great to do some rebuilding. We found 4 new people to teach and taught 22 lessons! It felt great!!! It felt good to know that I can still do the missionary aspect of the work as well as the administrative part. 

We taught *** this week who is easily one of my favorite people I have taught. She is rock solid but is having concerns about what the Gospel will do to her family. We taught temples and eternal families and commited her to pray so, its only a matter of time! We are working on getting her a friend because friends are really the only thing that holds a sincere person from joining the church. 

I had language study every day this week! I can't even believe it! I have had more language study this week than I have my entire time in Helsinki! I never stressed too much about Finnish on my mission as far as worrying that I wouldn't learn it entirely but, the Lord has blessed me for sure because I can say and do almost anything I want in Finnish! Really cool! I can see how if I keep working on it until the end though I can get really good.

Also today, I will be writing a report to President Kearon of the Area Presidency about the challenge he gave us. I'll have to put my writing skills to the test! 

On Wednesday we will also be leaving for Jyväskylä to do exchanges with the Zone Leaders there! That should be fun! 

Well love you all and hope you have a great week! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolki 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland

Step out of the boat

Sounds like Spencer had a good week and gave a bit more details than his last email.  Please pray for that dear Elder that lost all his luggage.  He was getting on the train for a transfer.  The train conductor told the Elder to put his bike on first.  When he did the door closed and the train sped away with all his belongings sitting on the platform.  It has been over 10 days and they have not found his luggage.  The things our missionaries go through!  Will only make them stronger!  Enjoy!

Dear Family & Friends,

Wow, sounds like the most crazy week that has ever happened! I think the Lord is preparing me to do what you are doing when I am older! Trek sounds like a huge production like always. The speech from "Brigham Young" and President Salmon are always inspiring. Lets also not forget the crazy roadside emergency! Im glad you were listening to your thoughts and feelings too! wow! 

My week was super crazy as well. We had the big interim training where 26 missionaries spent three nights at the mission home and we had 2 full days of training there. 

I had made a reference to how I wanted to sleep in the king size bed at the mission home a few weeks ago. Sister Watson remembered and had the king size bed all ready for me! I was seriously enjoying my stay at the mission home while everyone else was laying on pads on the floor! 

The training went well and everyone was edified. The elder who lost his stuff is not the one we know from home and he didnt find his luggage... He lost everything including his passport. The office is working on getting him a new one. Its actually harder than one would think. He is now in Vaasa where he is optimistically putting together an entirely European wardrope! He will look good for sure but kinda sticks that he lost his stuff. 

After the training we went to the temple. It was an english video!!!!! I always request it but we never get it! I guess the group of 26 missionaries from America helped them make a decision. It was the third video and wow! I havent ever gotten so many new outlooks on it! It was soo cool! It was also cool to be in the temple with some of my friends from the mission that I had never been to the temple with. 

We had a dinner appointment with the Bishop and his family. It was top three best dinners I have had on my mission for sure! The first course was a noodle soup. (Yes I said first course :] ) Then the second course was baked salmon with soft cheese and spices with terryaki vegetables. Best salmon I have ever had in my life! Then the third course was a salad. and fourth course was the most insane chocolate cake ever! It had gnouse on it! (I dont know what gnouse is but it tasted really good!) Super fun dinner.

Oh, haha, I gave a talk in church yesterday! I meant to record it but forgot! Elder Bednar gave us some suggestions for when we give talks. He said dont have a script. Come with notes and "step out of the boat" Referring to peter. He said this doesnt mean dont plan in fact it means you need to plan more. So, I did that and it went really well. I had a sweet joke at the beginning and had everyone going! All in Finnish of course! I talked about enduring to the end. A man was baptized in our ward on saturday so I compared his journey and how he is now right here with us! I explained how the greatest things Christ ever did were after his baptism! 

General Conference was also amazing! We saw all of it. My favorite talks were by Elders Gibbons, Klemingat and Bednar and one from Sister Mckonkie. Of course I liked the Elder Bednar one a lot. I feel like I can relate to him a lot better now that I have been around him a little. I was really prepared for this one and it reflected in how much I learned. 

This week should be moderatly busy. We dont have any big things here but we are getting ready for a transfer. We have a big transfer meeting today in a couple hours. These are intense. I also find out if I will still be an assistant or not!  I have been here for 22 weeks or since May! 

Well, that should do it for this week! See you all next week! 

-- 

Elder Spencer Tippetts

Finland Helsinki Mission

Neitsytpolku 3 A 4 

Fi-00140 Helsinki

Finland

We saw miracles and got minimal sleep

Dear Family & Friends,

Well, Pretty good week. We saw miracles and got minimal sleep! Just the way we like it around here!

We had exhanges in Jyväskylä with the Zone Leaders. It was fun. We got a lot of work done.

Then we had a sick elder that went home come back!!! I told him when he left 2 months ago that I would pick him up from the airport and I did! He looks great and is ready to work. Because of his arrival we had to have an interim transfer. So a few people moved but in the process, one elder didnt show up in Helsinki when his transfer to a train to Vaasa happened. We got super scared because he didnt have a phone so we had to wait for a call from him in order to find out what happened. Well after 2 hours we found him and he only had his bike. The conductor had told him to get on before Helsinki central to catch his next train. Well all his stuff was on the platform when he got back on the train to get his bike. Then the doors locked and the train drove away, leaving all his stuff on the platform. Long story short all his stuff is lost. So he has been staying with us until we can get his stuff back. The earliest will know is today. He has been with us since Thursday.

Fun week. We have 5 week interim training for all the new missionaries at the mission home which should be fun!

Any way, not much time this week. Have a great week everyone!

Love you!

--
Elder Spencer Tippetts
Finland Helsinki Mission
Neitsytpolki 3 A 4
Fi-00140 Helsinki
Finland